THE BREAKFAST CLUB-40 YEARS LATER

I love The Breakfast Club. It had a profound impact on me and how I viewed other students at school, and how I write today, especially who I write about the most.

Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, and Molly Ringwald in The Breakfast Club

You see before that, I had basically given up everything I loved about myself to get into the "popular" clique because life at home was pretty bad. I lived completely alone from 13-15 years and 10 months old. I had nothing, and so being liked and invited to things in school became my everything.

I was a total arsehole, and when I saw this, I related to ALL OF THEM.

I could have so easily become BENDER or ALLISON, but I chose to be CLAIRE.

This movie was exactly like my high school. I know people are talking about remaking it to add diversity, but I hope they don't. It's great for what it is, and the points are still made. As well, I agree that we need diverse stories representing all groups, but many high schools are still like this. Mine was. Sure, there were other races but by enlarge this was my high school. Replacing them with what I know will be offensive stereotypes will cut this film's message and themes.

I see it as an analogy for how different we are all on the outside, but we are all the same-in the world, even as adults. It's not about race, it's about people and human nature.

I write characters who are more like Claire or Andrew all the time, and part of that is because of this film. IMHO, the popular kids, or ones who seem to have it all, are always the ones who are silently suffering. It's harder to be an Andrew than a Bender. Writing from the popular kid, or the rich socialite/billionaire, has become such a huge part of my brand, as I know firsthand how deceptive those titles are.

In high school, I was dying inside. I often thought about ending it all, as I didn't want the fakeness of high school to end when I graduated. In high school, I had a place where I belonged. The cost of that was giving up my love of music, and theater-later I went on to major in musical theater and acting. My homelife was not great. Sure, I wasn't Bender with a horrible father who put cigarettes out on my arm, but I remember when I saw that about him, I thought "At least his father knows he's there."

I moved to Los Angeles for a month in 1985, and my mother didn't even notice. My sister didn't either but she had her own shit going on and I think she may not have been living with us at the time. My stepbrother knew and I told him, just in case something happened to me. I put him as my emergency contact.

I just wanted someone to notice me. I felt, and I often feel this as an adult too, that I'm screaming as loud as possible and no one hears me.

THE BREAKFAST CLUB showed me that it was normal to feel how I was feeling. Claire talking about all the expectations, which were shared by both Andrew and Brian. I had the social expectations of not talking to certain people, and getting into a prestigious college but to my mom and stepfather? Nothing. My mom wasn't a bad mother but she just wasn't there for me after she left my dad---and yes, she made amends when I was in my twenties, so don't worry.

I remember watching that and thinking that I was outwardly Claire but really Bender or Allison inside in this dark place that no one knew about.

As an adult, I watched many of my friends and colleagues become famous as athletes or actors/actresses. I saw how they couldn't trust who was a real friend and who was using them. I saw the loneliness in them all the time. I saw how money became the currency for love, and status became their identity.

I won't say who, so don't ask. I went out with a pretty famous actor whom my then-agent introduced me to in New York when he was still fairly new in the industry. He had been thrust into stardom after critical acclaim for two films. A couple of years later, he was in an even bigger film out here in Los Angeles, and he got so famous that I was stalked and had to move, because I also was stalked just for knowing him. (YOU READ THAT RIGHT)

Tabloid magazines offered me THOUSANDS to give them the real story about him. It was horrible to see and deal with, and I was a nobody failing at everything-hahaha, well, you know, I was a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory and not a famous actress. I'd come up, and women would be sitting on my stairs or hiding in bushes just to possibly get to him. It scared the shit out of me.

One night, I got a phone call, and he begged me to come get him. He had been in a fender bender on Sunset. He wasn't hurt physically, but emotionally, he was in danger. You see, people kept coming up to him and asking for his autograph. No one, including the paramedics, asked if he was okay.

Back then, I was still acting, but that is when I shifted into animation because I knew that life would have swallowed me whole.

I think fame, popularity, and money are all good in their own ways, but they are also a lot harder than people realize.

I realized that when I saw THE BREAKFAST CLUB, and then it took me a few years to realize it fully.

Do yo like this film? I'd love to hear your thoughts on whether you are Gen X, how it affected you, and if you are a Millennial or Gen Z, and have recently seen it, did it impact you at all?

WHAT FILMS HAVE CHANGED THE WAY YOU SEE THE WORLD?

For me, it's this one--OBVI

BACK TO THE FUTURE

FERRIS BEULLER'S DAY OFF

and

TITANIC

Thanks for reading!!!

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